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Apple (AAPL) rises after Carl Icahn announced on Twitter that he had increased his stake in the company by $500 million to more than $3 billion. Icahn also said the company should increase its buyback.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Apple (AAPL) was rising 1.22% to 555.78 on Wednesday after Carl Icahn announced on Twitter he had increased his stake in the company by $500 million and that his stake is now worth more than $3 billion.

In a series of tweets, Icahn called the decision a "no brainer" but still took a shot at Apple's board of directors, writing that the board "is doing great disservice to shareholders by not having markedly increased its buyback." Icahn has continually called for Apple to buy back an additional $150 billion of its own stock, but the company has yet to do so.

Apple announced in May that it planned to return $100 billion to shareholders over three years through stock buybacks and a quarterly dividend of $3.05 per share.

TheStreet Ratings team rates Apple as a "buy" with a ratings score of A+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate APPLE INC (AAPL) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, good cash flow from operations, increase in stock price during the past year and expanding profit margins. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income."